Nerlich B., Clarke D.D.

Cognitive Linguistics and The History of

Linguistics/The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics/ed. by Geeraerts
D., Cuyckens H., Oxford University Press, Oxford, the UK. 2007,pp. 589-607

Before you read, study the following terms:

Cognitive science- is the interdisciplinary study of the mind and its
processes with input from linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy,
computer science/artificial intelligence, etc.
embodied- means that many features of cognition, whether human or
otherwise, are shaped by aspects of an organism’s entire body
perception- the way people perceive reality
Gestalt psychology-is a school of thought that looks at the human mind and
behaviour as a whole
categorization-is the act of sorting and organizing things according to group,
class, or category
conceptual profiling- is a process for assessing of implicit or associated
meaning
mental space- is the key concept of the Mental Space Theory and the
Blending Theory. It is a constantly modified cognitive structure which is
established in real time in discourse and is stored in the short-term memory of the
speakers.
Paragraph 1
Cognitive Linguistics emerged from its dissatisfaction with dominant
orthodoxies in twentieth-century linguistics, among them the structuralist/formalist
tradition in European semantics, the generative/formalist tradition that dominated
research into syntax in North America, and the formalist/computational approach
to semantics that prevailed in North America and Europe during the second half of
the twentieth century. Natural allies of Cognitive Linguistics by contrast are
functionalists and contextualists of all persuasions from the Prague school onward:
Functional Grammar (Dik), Systemic-Functional Grammar (Halliday),
functionaltypological theories of language (Givon), pragmatics (ordinary language
philosophy, Grice), Natural Morphology and Natural Phonology (Stampe), as well
as the Columbia School of linguistics with William Diver as its head. As
Langacker (1998: 1) wrote, "The movement called Cognitive Linguistics belongs
to the functionalist tradition." This means that in contrast to formalist approaches,
language is no longer viewed as an autonomous system, but rather "as an integral
facet of cognition (not as a separate 'module' or 'mental faculty'). Insofar as
possible, linguistic structure is analyzed in terms of more basic systems and
abilities (e.g., perception, attention, categorization) from which it cannot be
dissociated."
Are the following statements true, false or not given?
1. Cognitive Linguistics arose as the opposition to the dominant orthodoxies
in the twentieth-century linguistics
2. Natural allies of Cognitive Linguistics are the Prague School and
Columbia School of linguistics
3. Cognitive Linguistics stems from formalist tradition
4. In the frame of the cognitive linguistics language is considered to be an
autonomous system of signs
5. The language is viewed as a form of cognitive behaviour of a speaker or a
hearer
Paragraph 2
The dissatisfaction with orthodoxies brought with it a questioning of various
assumptions and divisions on which traditional linguistic research was based, in
particular the separation of objective knowledge from subjective knowledge, of
linguistic knowledge from encyclopedic knowledge, of literal language from
figurative language, of conceptual/cognitive structures from linguistic structures,
and finally of synchronic structures from diachronic change (see Peeters 1998).
The influence of prototype theory (and also fuzzy logic) brought about a
reevaluation of what had always been put into the formalist-structuralist
wastebasket, namely, variability, polysemy, and diachronic semantic change.
Whereas previous generations of linguists had tended to search for simplicity,
monosemy, regularity, and rules, cognitive linguists revel in complexity,
flexibility, and patterns, including irregular ones. "One of the reasons for the
emergence of CL and one of its most significant features nowadays is a special
interest in those aspects of language that were previously considered as irregular or
marginal" (Bernardez 1999: 13).
Which statement summarizes the paragraph better?
1. The difference between traditional linguistics and cognitive linguistics is
only speculative.
2. Cognitive linguistics questions almost all basic assumptions of traditional
linguistics especially those that were viewed as irregular or insignificant.
3. Cognitive linguistics includes polysemy, monosemy, diachronic semantic
change, prototype theory and fuzzy logic.
Paragraph 3
Further, the influence of a new type of cognitive science (that has been
called “Second Generation Cognitive Science”; see Brockman 2000) brought with
it a shift from seeing the mind as a disembodied manipulation of formal symbols
and of language as a syntactic arrangement of formal symbols to seeing mind,
meaning, and language as embodied. Syntax, semantics, morphology, and
phonology all came to be seen as exploiting universal features of human
perception, bodily structure, and social interaction. This means that `cognition" and
"pragmatics" are, in a sense, integral components of all aspects of language.
Scan the paragraph to find the opposite to what is given below
1. A new type of cognitive science is called “The First Generation Cognitive
Science”
2. Within the cognitive linguistics the mind is seen as a disembodied
manipulation of formal symbols.
3. In the light of cognitive linguistics language is considered to be a
syntactic arrangement of formal symbols
4. There is no such aspect of language that stems from human perception,
bodily structure, and social interaction.
 Paragraph 4
In the paragraph complete each space with a word formed from the
word in capitals
The beginnings of (1) ………. (COGNITION) Linguistics lie somewhere
round 1975, which is the year when Lakoff appears to have used the term
"Cognitive Linguistics" for the first time. Around that period, Lakoff abandoned
his earlier attempts to develop a Generative (2)……….. (SEMANTIC) by merging
Chomsky's (3)…………….. (TRANSFORMATION) Grammar with formal logic.
As Lakoff points out "Noam claimed then—and still does, so far as I can tell—that
syntax is independent of meaning, context, background knowledge, memory,
cognitive processing, (4)……………(COMMUNICATION) intent, and every
aspect of the body." However, in working on his Generative Semantics, Lakoff
noticed "quite a few cases where semantics, (5) ………… (CONTEXTUAL), and
other such factors entered into rules governing the syntactic occurrences of phrases
and morphemes" and caused what generativists saw as "irregularities." At the same
time, Lakoff realized that figures of speech, such as metaphor and metonymy, were
not just linguistic decorations, or, worse still, (6) …………… (DEVIATE), but a
part of everyday speech that affects the ways in which we (7) …………
(PERCEPTION), think, and act. He began his collaboration with the philosopher
Mark Johnson in 1979, and they published their seminal book Metaphors We Live
By in 198o, which was the first publication to bring Cognitive Linguistics to the
attention of a wider audience.
Paragraph 5
Choose a word in italics which suits the paragraph better
But George Lakoff was not the only one dissatisfied with transformational
linguistics/cognitive linguistics during the 1970s. Typically, "Cognitive
Linguistics has not arisen fullyformed from a single source, it has no central guru
and no crystallized formalism" (Janda 2000: 3). Around 1975, in fact, Charles
Fillmore was working on his theory of frame semantics/blending theory, and
Ronald Langacker was laying the foundations of his Cognitive Grammar (initially
called "Space Grammar"). Leonard Talmy wrote his dissertation in 1972 and began
to introduce principles of Gestalt/Cognitive psychology into linguistic/literary
analysis, especially in his study of force dynamics and event frames. Taking over
some of Talmy's insights into Gestalt psychology, especially the concepts of Figure
and Ground, Langacker developed his own theory of conceptual/domain profiling,
which became central to Cognitive Linguistics.
Paragraph 6
From 1980 onwards, Cognitive Linguistics began to flourish in the shape of
work on metaphorical categorization (Lakoff), image schemata (Johnson),
Cognitive Grammar (Langacker), mental spaces and blending (Fauconnier,
Turner), and diachronic prototype semantics (Geeraerts). In the second half of the
1980s, Cognitive Linguistics became sociologically organized. In 1989, Rene
Dirven, who was particularly instrumental in the international expansion of
Cognitive Linguistics, organized the First International Conference on Cognitive
Linguistics in Duisburg, Germany, which became a landmark in Cognitive
Linguistics. It was at the Duisburg conference that the International Cognitive
Linguistics Association (ICLA) was founded and the journal Cognitive Linguistics
and the series Cognitive Linguistic Research were launched.
Read the paragraph and for the questions 1-4, choose the correct
answer A, B, C, D
1. According to the author, cognitive linguistics
A. began to flourish
B. began to develop its own forms such as metaphorical categorization,
image schemata, cognitive grammar, etc.
C. began to decline
D. began to borrow methods of research from traditional linguistics (e.g.
mental spaces and blending)
2. According to the author, cognitive linguistics
A. became fully developed
B. became sociologically organized
 C. became unaware of its shortcomings
D. started to include neuroscience
3. According to the author, what happened in 1989?
A. The First International Conference on Cognitive Linguistics in
Edinburgh, Scotland was organized
B. The First International Conference on Cognitive Linguistics in
Edinburgh, Scotland became a landmark in Cognitive Linguistics.
C. The First International Conference on Cognitive Linguistics in
Duisburg, Germany was not organized
D. The First International Conference on Cognitive Linguistics in
Duisburg, Germany was organized.
4. According to the author, what three other significant events
happened in 1989?
A. The International Cognitive Linguistics Association (ICLA) was
founded and the journal Cognitive Linguistics was launched
B. The International Cognitive Linguistics Association (ICLA) was
founded and the journal Cognitive Linguistics and the series Cognitive Linguistic
Research were launched.
C. The journal Cognitive Linguistics and the series Cognitive Linguistic
Research were launched.
D. The International Cognitive Linguistics Association (ICLA) was not
founded, but the journal Cognitive Linguistics and the series Cognitive Linguistic
Research were launched.